Gas @ 67,132: 4.450 gal E10 93 @ $3.519/g = $15.66. 169.8 mi/4.45 g = 38 MPG
End @ 67,135 (51 miles)
Added 2 oz of my fuel additive mix.
Richmond BMW Riders breakfast at Kitchen 33. They got chatty (well, at least one guy did) about stuff I wasn’t interested in, so I left before everybody else. I didn’t even pretend to be going to the bathroom. I just got up, grabbed my helmet and jacket, and walked out. Quietly, because I’m not a monster. I passed out some of Dale’s business cards to some Airhead guys; he gave me a discount on what he says is an R 60/2 tool kit in exchange. I couldn’t even recognize some of the tools.
Kind of took the long way home – definitely took the long way there, too. I checked in on my folks on the way home, there was some dehydration last week, not a surprise for summer.
I decided that since I’ve never REALLY felt the bike need to go to reserve, I was going to make that happen. When I got home from the doctor excursion earlier this week, I was at 105 miles on the tank. It’s about 15 miles (the long way) to Kitchen 33, so I decided to just ride until I had to go on reserve. Frankly, after getting to 150 on a tank a couple of times with no issues, I wasn’t entirely sure I was using the petcock correctly. Turns out I was, so yay me.
I expected the bike to stutter for a minute and then die, which is what my old CB750s used to do. The R 90/6 just started to run crappy, like it was starving for fuel BECAUSE IT WAS. I finally noticed I was really having to crank the throttle to the point where my hand was starting to ache, then thought, “Oh, I wonder if this means I need to put it on reserve.” I did and boom, the pep came right back. That was at about 165 miles, I was in Mom’s neighborhood, so I got gas at Sheetz between her house and mine.
I have to remember a couple of things:
1) The fuel tank is taller in the middle than it is on the sides.
2) I’m only using the left petcock day-to-day, which means there’s a tiny bit of fuel in the right lobe I’m not tapping into. Since I’ve got a crossover fuel line, I could use the right petcock as an extra reserve, a two-stage reserve.
I didn’t think to test that two-stage reserve thing in the moment, but at least I think I can reliably get about 160 to 165 miles on a tank, maybe 170 if I’ve got a tail wind.
Specs say the tank holds 18 liters of gas, which is about 4.75 gallons. I put 4.45 gallons of gas in the tank when I refueled. That’s about 17 liters, so I ran it down pretty good. One liter is 0.264 of a gallon, so at 38 mpg (on that tank), that last liter should have carried me another 10 miles. I’m going to say 175 max, with 160 being the time to start seriously looking for gas. At 150, it’s time to start looking but without worrying.